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Patient Sammy Joseph makes most of chance

By Daniel GirardSports Reporter

Tues., June 29, 2010

Sammy Joseph is a football journeyman.

The Louisiana native played in two colleges, battled through training camps in the NFL, tryouts in the Arena Football League and, last season, served time on the Toronto Argonauts practice roster.

But as the Argos kick off the 2010 season in Calgary Thursday night against the Stampeders, the latest stop in the 27-year-old defensive back’s football apprenticeship is as a starter in the Toronto secondary.

“It’s a great feeling,” Joseph said Tuesday after the Argos last practice in Mississauga before flying West.

While the path his life in football has taken may be long and winding, Joseph’s belief in what moved him up from the practice roster couldn’t be more straightforward: “I’d say it’s just patience and a lot of hard work.

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“It’s not just football, it’s life,” he said. “No matter what you’re doing — playing football or working in a regular job — you just have to work hard at your craft and when the opportunity comes, seize it.”

Joseph did just that in training camp. Even though he played special teams in the final six games of a disastrous 3-15 2009 and started the last two at cornerback, he wasn’t expected to be there as the 2010 campaign kicked off. But an injury to Alphonso Hodge gave him the chance he was looking for “and Sammy just wouldn’t relinquish the job,” said head coach Jim Barker.

“He’s been outstanding. He’s got great break on the ball. He’s very fast,” Barker said, adding that Joseph has also worked hard with defensive backs coach Orlondo Steinauer to improve his ball skills.

While the Argos coaching staff may have helped him improve as a football player, Joseph credits a group of troubled youth with “making me a better person.”

Rather than return to Louisiana for the off-season, Joseph stayed to brave a Canadian winter and mentor young men serving time at the Sprucedale Youth Centre. Through a program with the Argos Foundation, he and other players visited the facility in Simcoe a couple of times each week to counsel those convicted of serious crimes and assure them it’s not too late to make changes in their lives.

“We shared a lot of stuff,” Joseph said of the young men aged 16 to 18. “They’ve faced a lot of hard times at an early age and it was encouraging to see them focus on their lives and doing what they need to do to get better.”

Joseph said he tried to show them, through his own football career, that patience and hard work “helps you overcome adverse things in life.”

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Football is in Joseph’s blood. One older brother, Vance, played two seasons in the NFL and now is an assistant secondary coach with the San Francisco 49ers and another, Mickey, played college football at the University of Nebraska, tried out for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and is now a receivers coach at Langston University in Oklahoma.

Sammy Joseph began his collegiate career in 2003 at his brother Vance’s old school, the University of Colorado. But he transferred to Louisiana State University where he sat the 2004 season as required by NCAA transfer rules, and then dressed in 17 games over his final two years in college.

Joseph went undrafted but signed a free agent deal with the 49ers in 2007 and was among the final cuts at training camp. He bounced around to mini-camps of various NFL and Arena league teams in 2008 before signing with the Argos 18 months ago.

“I just love playing football,” he said. “I think that’s what kept me going in the down parts of my career.”

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